"Yes," said Elizabeth in a dissatisfied kind of way, — "enough of that, — but I deserved better of myself than to give it to him."
"You are too hard upon yourself."
"Circumstances are sometimes."
"Will it do to say that?" said Winthrop looking up.
"Why not?"
"Will it do to confess oneself — one's freedom of mind —under the power of circumstance, and so not one's own?"
"I must confess it," said Elizabeth, "for it's true, of me. I suppose, not of every one."
"Then you cannot depend upon yourself."
"Well, — I can't."
He smiled.